Deals: Amazon Takes $150 Off M2 MacBook Air Models With the Return of All-Time Low Prices

but that slowwwww hard drive config...

I wonder: I'll be in the market for a new Mac soon. I assume they'll both be M2 when I'm ready to get one

MacBook Air (8GB memory, 512GB SSD) at $1,299.00 that will work very well for what I need for 3-4 years. It will also be lighter for travel, will have all the ports I need, and a nice enough (very nice) screen

Or

14" MacBook Pro (16GB memory, 1TB SSD) at $2,299.00 that will work well for 6-8 years, will be a little heavier (still not that heavy), and support an extra monitor (something to consider)

Neither.

Get the 14" MacBook Pro with 16GB memory and 512GB storage for $1599. Currently at that price at Best Buy ('https://www.bestbuy.com/site/macbook-pro-14-laptop-apple-m1-pro-chip-16gb-memory-512gb-ssd-latest-model-space-gray/6450853.p?ref=8575135&loc=10820986553f11edb5f1362f91a0a8f90INT&acampID=10820986553f11edb5f1362f91a0a8f90INT&skuId=6450853') and Costco ('https://www.costco.com/macbook-pro-(14-inch)---apple-m1-pro-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-14-core-gpu%2c-512gb-ssd.product.100713178.html')

I bought mine at this price a couple of weeks ago on Amazon. All the comments about the base MacBook Air M2 are nuts. Too many people have been influenced by YouTube influencers. Bet less than 10% even on this sight are not editing 4or 8K streams in Final Cut Pro, or are professional photographers. Slow drive: Really? is everybody transferring 100 gig files everyday? If it is such letdown for you, buy fully specked out MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air has always been their best seller.Too many people have these Wallter Mitty dreams that they want be just like the person they see on YouTube!

but that slowwwww hard drive config...

That the majority of people in the target market for this device will never notice or care about.

All the negative comments about the SSD and RAM every time this gets posted makes me laugh and cry in equal amounts.

I actually own a base M2 and it is just as fast as my M1 Pro 16GB/1TB MacBook Pro for just about everything I throw at it. Benchmarks can always highlight specific things, but they don't reflect the real-life experience of using them.

I had pretty low expectations of it after all of the YouTuber reviews, but I had the opportunity to pick one up at a slight discount and thought it would be good enough as a couch computer. I have been surprised at how much of a powerhouse it is. Sure memory pressure goes yellow and even red, but it never really slows down or gets annoying to use. Sure the SSD takes a bit longer for file copy tasks on HUGE files, but how often do you really do that? And is a couple of minutes here and there really that much of an issue?

if you need to run VMs, do heavyweight video editing, use large photoshops etc. don't buy it. It actually does those jobs really well, but you are better served by a more powerful machine if those 1-2 minutes of time are important to you.

For everyone else, the base spec M2 is likely to be one of the best personal computers you will ever own.